Masteries

Offense:
21

Defense:
0

Utility:
9

Threats to Viktor with this build

SUPER easy matchup. Use your q to harass a LOT more than she can handle, burst her if she tries to go in, and use your ult to end hers, or your w if your ult is on cooldown. Push and poke hard to deny her farm, and try not to let her roam if possible. Rush a Lich Bane to punish her hard.

3

Akali

Akali will have a very rough time in this matchup. If she tries to farm in close range, use siphon power for low mana, easy harass. If she jumps on you after level 6, set your stun field down around yourself and burst her down. If she thinks her invisibility shroud can save her from chaos storm, she's dead wrong.

3

Talon

If you can keep him from snowballing, which shouldn't be too hard unless you make a major mistake in the early game (especially now that he doesn't have a silence), then you can continue to keep him down in the late game. A lot of people feel like the removal of his silence will pretty basically remove him from the game, but any good talon or someone who's played against him know that with the right items, the silence isn't even that important because you kill people so quickly. However, if you can keep him from getting to that point, then he won't be able to do much at all. If he does go in, place your gravity field down and burst the heck out of him. Consider taking exhaust for if he does get scary, because then you can exhaust him when he goes in and he won't do jack. Prohibit him from roaming and getting kills at every opportunity, and try to convince your team to stop him from split pushing if possible.

4

Kassadin

Overall a pretty good matchup for you, mostly due to your excellent early game harass with q. His farming in short range will be really difficult, and farming with spells is pretty mana expensive for him. Try to punish him if he ever tries to jump in on you or one of your allies by bursting him down quickly. So long as you both hit 6 at the same time, shouldn't be a very difficult matchup. Don't get outplayed by Riftwalk.

5

Zed

Depends heavily upon the skill level of the zed. If he's good, he won't get harassed too much in the early game, only going in for farm when he knows that he won't get too hurt, and use shurikens to farm everything else. Your gravity field loses some of it's helpfulness against him because he's so mobile. A good zed can ult you, deal his damage and ult out quicker than you will stun or burst him. But, first of all, most zeds aren't good zeds. Also, if you play it safe after he gets his ult you can push very hard using your laser with little to no danger to you. Burst matchups are very volatile. Try not to let him roam too much. RUSH ZHONYAS!!!

5

Fizz

This little fish is annoying as heck for almost anybody in my opinion. In the early levels, he's exceptionally weak so try to harass him as much as possible. He gets early kill pressure, especially with a jungler gank, near level 3 or 4, so try not to have the wave pushed then. He gets crazy amounts of kill pressure at level 6, so be super wary. Despite his not being AD, rush zhonya's along with your hex core to try to counter his burst. Try to counter-burst him when he gets close.

5

Yasuo

The unfortunate part about yasuo is that even if you harass him heavily, it's pretty difficult to stop him from supremely messing !@#$ up late game. He currently doesn't need a whole lot of gold to scale to extremely scary levels of damage and dueling potential. Overall though, this section is supposed to be about lane matchups, and you certainly hold a major advantage in lane. Your q harass is targeted, and so he will not be able to use his crazy mobility to avoid it as he loves to do. Knock out his passive shield with a basic autoattack before harassing him in this way. You interact in very weird ways with windwall. While it can block the projectile of q, you still get the buffs , and the q damage (not the autoattack) is not super important anyways. It can block death ray, but only the ground area. This means that you can technically place the origin spot behind the wall and still hit him if he puts it down preemptively. It has no interactions with either gravity field or chaos storm, so those are unaffected. Try not to let him get fed, cuz he gets scary. If he tries to go in on you in lane in close range, drop down your gravity field and either walk away if you're afraid or try to burst him if you can.

6

Orianna

Pretty basically a perfectly even match up through most parts of the game, as are most of her matchups. You're fairly equal at most parts of the game, but with very different strengths. In the early game, try to use your q to auto-attack trade with her but make sure to get out before she gets consecutive hits. You both scale very well, but she ends up more utility focused, and you end up more damage focused. Probably rush an Athene's, or at least a Chalice so she can't push the wave too hard. Her kiting will make it hard for you to kill her.

6

Ahri

A really skill based matchup, with only a very slight advantage to ahri. The main thing to do in lane is to make sure to avoid her charm so as not to get her insane harassment combo, which she can also easily kill with if you are low enough. However, you also want to avoid being in such a position that she can easily use her orb of deception for both the purpose of harassment and pushing. I usually do this by playing near the edge of the minion wave, moving away if she sends out her orb of deception and moving further in if she charms. You can easily push as hard as she can, so you don't have to worry about that. Try to harass her with your siphon power from within the minion wave in the very early game if possible. She roams much better than you do in the early game, so try to warn any allies if she leaves lane and push it to the turret. I would say that you get better teamfights later in the game, and a similar if not slightly higher amount of burst. The only thing that really gives her an advantage in this lane is that when she has her ult, fighting you becomes much easier because you rely heavily upon your gravity field and death ray to get good consistent damage, and she can just dash right out of it. So this really only applies if it's a good ahri.

6

Vel'Koz

A heavily skill based matchup. He technically outranges you like many of the other mages, but not as extremely as say xerath or lux. Stay out of your minion wave because otherwise he can use his void rifts to both push the lane and damage you. If he does push, ask for jungler ganks because he's super immobile and his crowd control is hard to hit on multiple targets. Getting the second augment for the speed boost and boots early can allow you to easily outplay his skillshots. Use of ultimates is super important in this matchup. Your ultimate can end his instantly, but his outranges yours. In teamfights, consider saving it for this express purpose unless you see an opportunity for an incredible ult that will make sure the team fight goes in your favor. This matchup favors whoever likes raves the most, because there's an excessive amount of lasers.

7

Lux

Similar to the other long range mage matchups with one small quirk: Lux has very little waveclear but tons of burst. Burst matchups are very finicky in general, able to swing heavily depending upon the player skill. However, lux can burst you from much farther than you can burst her. Your saving grace is that she needs to land her snare to be able to burst you at all. So dodge that thang. You can also try to play passively and push her to her turret, because her waveclear really is pretty subpar.

8

Xerath

A pretty rough matchup, because he outranges you severely. He can poke you down from out of the range of all of your spells, and there's not much that you can do about it. The two things that you can do to help this lane are either play very passively and try to farm as much as possible, because you scale better than him, or request ganks from the jungler, because he's very immobile. Rush Athene's so he can't push the wave too hard.

8

Syndra

Similar to Xerath in that she outranges you and that can cause problems. Try to either farm passively or request jungler assistance if possible. She's got a pretty high skill cap with a lot of skillshots, so if it's a bad or even just meh player, it won't be nearly as hard. ABSOLUTELY DON'T FEED HER. Consider rushing Athene's so she can't push, and because you really won't be able to reach her with lich bane.

9

Ziggs

Similar to all of the other long-range mage matchups in that he pushes hard from a long enough range that you can't burst him easily. However, he's got an advantage over the others in that he can satchel charge himself out of danger. A very rough matchup.

Masteries

Offense:
21

Defense:
9

Utility:
0

Introduction

Hello, I am crystalfortress! Welcome to my Viktor guide! Viktor recently got reworked, with most of the changes pertaining to how his Hex Core works. However, I didn't see any of the guides on mobafire update along with the next phase of Viktor's glorious evolution! So, instead I decided to make a new guide talking about how I've been playing him since the rework. If you enjoy the guide or it teaches you something new about Viktor or his build, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment! It not only gets the guide higher on the list of Viktor guides, it also makes me feel super good inside! If there's anything that you see in the guide that you disagree with or that you want to discuss, make sure to leave a comment!

notes

I'd like to note that the matchups section is still currently under construction and will continue to be updated as I play more matchups.ALL HAIL THE GLORIOUS EVOLUTION!!!

Masteries

Masteries

4/1

1/1

3/5

1/1

1/5

3/5

3/1

1/

3/

1/

1/5

3/1

3/1

1/5

1/1

These are overall my very favorite masteries for AP mid laners. The offense tree is important because it gives you lots of advantages for dealing more damage. This is my personal favorite way to go through it, focusing on AP, but without the unnecessary point in Arcane Blade , because you shouldn't be autoattacking that much. I like the utility tree mostly for the advantages that it provides in terms of mana sustain, summoner cooldown, and blue buff duration. You could also however quite easily put these nine points into the defense tree, which will help you take more damage. This is mostly just a matter of preference, but it could also be good in an especially rough matchup, for instance against a long range AP mid laner.ALL HAIL THE GLORIOUS EVOLUTION!!!

Runes

Runes

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power3

Greater Seal of Scaling Health9

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist9

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration9

MY PREFERRED RUNES

QUINTESSENCES

These are the best offensive choice for any AP mid laner, as they provide you with AP, your main offensive stat. Great early game damage boost.

SEALS

These are usually the best seals in most matchups, providing you with a nice amount of late game tankiness. Run armor seals against an AD opponent, but otherwise these are a pretty solid choice.

GLYPHS

Magic resist glyphs are pretty important in any matchup against an AP lane opponent (which is most of the matchups in mid these days). They help you mitigate the magic damage harass that they will be throwing out, allowing you to stay in lane longer.

MARKS

Magic penetration will provide you with a massive boost in damage early game by allowing you to penetrate through the resistances that enemies build or have naturally, but also carries over excellently into late game by amplifying your damage overall.

ALTERNATIVE RUNES

QUINTESSENCES

I used to run these in every page because I was still in the process of buying my AP and AD runes, and these were a nice filler that was applicable on all champions. I still use them in a page that I run against heavily skillshot-reliant enemies like Lux or Xerath, so that I can avoid their damage more easily.

SEALS

These are by far the best seals to run against an AD mid opponent. They will help you mitigate any early-game damage that they put out while you build towards your Zhonya's Hourglass. In this situation, replace your glyphs, you won't be needing the magic resistance.

I've tried running a combination of these before and really liked the results for a more aggressive playstyle. The extra mana regeneration, especially early game helps you harass a lot more. Also nice if you have a super blue-buff reliant jungler.

GLYPHS

I would suggest running these if your lane opponent is AD, as you won't be needing to mitigate any magic damage, or at least not nearly as much as against an AP opponent.

ALL HAIL THE GLORIOUS EVOLUTION!!!

Summoner Spells

REGULAR USE SUMMONER SPELLS

Always use Flash. I cannot overstate this enough. The mobility afforded by this summoner spell is impossible to compete with. You can use the blink to cross walls so as to surprise enemies, run away from them, cover distance in chases, or get in range for the spell to finish off that low-health enemy. Always use Flash.

Ignite gives you lots of early game kill pressure. The damage over time can give you that small boost in damage that you need to be able to finish off a low health enemy. The ability also applies grievous wounds, which reduce healing effects on the affected enemy. Great for early kill potential, super important against certain enemies that rely upon regeneration to be tanky (like Swain, Vladimir, or Dr. Mundo).

ALTERNATIVE SUMMONER SPELLS

If you're against an assassin with some really scary burst damage, consider running this. It reduces their damage by %40, which is more than enough to allow you to survive in most cases. However, this ability grants you very little additional kill pressure compared to Ignite, so don't run this if you plan to play aggressively.

Another one that's good against enemies with scary burst, in that it allows you to heal yourself and thusly avoid dying to that burst. However, it gets countered by Ignite and enemies who apply grievous wounds, so consider replacing it with either Barrier or Exhaust if they have one of those.

A summoner used for the same purpose as heal, to protect you against scary enemy burst. However, this one has a few advantages and a few disadvantages. First of all, it isn't a permanent heal, meaning that the health will disappear after the shield times out. However, it isn't affected by grievous wounds, so it isn't countered by Ignite or grievous wounds. It also can't be used on an additional ally like Heal can. However, it can be used to increase you above full health, which can be useful against enemies that can bring you from 100 health to 0 health while you're CCed. You can throw this down before the crowd control hits and be able to survive the burst. Weigh your options before each game against a super aggressive enemy and choose between this, Exhaust, or Heal.

Abilities

LEVELING SEQUENCE EXPLANATION

Ability Sequence

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

While this is usually the best leveling sequence, there are some situations where you might want to change the early levels. If you are against an enemy with the kind of range such that you won't easily be able to harass them with Siphon Power, then take Death Ray at level 1. If you need crowd control to help mitigate the aggression of an enemy with kill pressure at level three, I would suggest forgoing a second point in Death Ray for a point in Gravity Field. Other than that, stick to the plan.

PASSIVE ABILITY

GLORIOUS EVOLUTION

When people think of Viktor, this is often the first thing that pops into their minds. His passive is super unique. At the start of the game you have in your inventory, before you even buy anything, a Prototype Hex Core. No other champion can buy this item, it is specifically reserved for Viktor. Over the course of the game you can upgrade it into, in order, The Hex Core MK-1, The Hex Core MK-2, and finally into a Perfect Hex Core. Each of these upgrades provides you with really nice bonus stats in AP, AP per level, and mana. Also, with each upgrade you get to augment one of your abilities. Siphon Power gives you a speed boost, Gravity Field will bounce enemies into the middle when they get stunned, and Death Ray gets a secondary explosion following the first, dealing additional damage (less if the target was hit with the initial laser). When all of your abilities are augmented, your ultimate also gets augmented, giving it the ability to move faster. I talk in-depth about when to upgrade the hex core and which abilities to upgrade when you do in the ITEMS chapter. All you need to know for now is that this item/passive is one of the things that makes Viktor such a late-game beast.

MAIN ABILITIES

SIPHON POWER

This ability provides you with many different things. It is a targetted nuke that gives you a small shield and an enhanced autoattack on being cast. The scaling of both the shield and the damage of the ability itself are rather small and unimpressive. The main that makes this ability important are the enhanced autoattack which has %50 AP scaling, and the fact that when fully leveled it has only a 4 second cooldown (and that's without cooldown reduction). One important thing to note is that the damage and shield scale very poorly when you upgrade the ability, and instead it mostly scales with champion level. That's why we avoid leveling it and instead focus on Death Ray.

GRAVITY FIELD

This is the ability that contains all of your CC. When activated, it creates a large area that slows enemies within. If an enemy sticks around inside of it for 1.5 seconds, they become stunned. This ability can be difficult to use correctly, as to actually get the stun with it, the enemy has to stick around inside of the field. There are tips on how to use it in the TIPS & TRICKS chapter. In teamfights, it's important to attempt to secure as many enemies within it's area as possible so that you can combo it into an excellent Chaos Storm and Death Ray. Don't level this except for last in any situation (unless maybe you're a support) because it deals no damage, and upgrading it only increases the slow (which is actually pretty nice because it helps you get more stuns as well, but still don't do it).

DEATH RAY

This is a super important ability for Viktor, because it is the way that he pokes from long range and the way he clears waves. The ability is one of the more complicated skillshots in the game as you have to designate both an origin and a direction. The range at which you can set the origin is fairly short, but the laser itself extends for a while. This can make it difficult to hit moving enemies at long range, and hard to employ effectively when you are moving yourself. The best tip that I have for you is to practice a lot, and probably turn off smartcast. I, personally, just use smartcast with range indicators. It is also super easy to clear waves with, especially once you get the augment for it. One cast, if aligned properly, can clear an entire wave (other than siege minions) at most points in the game. That's why you always augment this first (maybe unless you're a support).

ULTIMATE ABILITY

CHAOS STORM

This is your ultimate ability, meaning that it only becomes available to level at levels 6, 11, and 16. When cast, this ability deals a large dose of initial damage, then continues to deal damage in the area for 7 seconds. Both the AP scaling and the scaling with level on this ability are absurd, especially if you take into accout the damage over time. The base effect already has incredible damage connected to it, and then it continues to deal lots of damage afterwards. A couple important things to point out about this ability are first of all that it ends channel effects on cast, making you very good against certain enemies because it ends the channel immediately and easily, which can be important in a chaotic team fight. The second important thing is that you can redirect the storm with the R button. The storm will travel to whichever location you press. It will also, however, follow an enemy that it is cast over on it's own.ALL HAIL THE GLORIOUS EVOLUTION!!!

Items

STARTING ITEMS

The doran's ring start is great for almost any AP mid laner. It provides you with great combat stats in health, ability power, and excellent mana sustain. You also get enough money left over to pick up 2 Health Potions, which will provide you with ample health sustain to make it until your first back in most cases.

This start is solely for the situation where you are against an enemy with crazy amounts of harassment. This start provides you with enough health sustain to be able to farm for a good amount of time so that you don't have to back constantly. I like taking an additional Mana Potion and two Health Potions as well instead of the usual 3 Health Potions, because the lack of mana sustain without it seriously hinders any kind of counter-harassment or waveclearing that you will be capable of. That is your call though.

FIRST BACK/EARLY GAME ITEMS

Buying one of these early could be a good idea if you will be building a Lich Bane, which is one of the suggested rush items. The stats are pretty nice, with ability power being your main offensive stat and mana being a really nice pickup, especially early, for Viktor. The passive before upgrading into Lich Bane isn't all that great, but it can add a substantial amount of damage to your Siphon Power autoattacks, so don't underestimate it.

Boots of Speed are a really good idea to pick up early against skillshot-reliant enemies, although they also are helpful against pretty basically any enemy. Movement speed is always a nice stat to have, allowing you to chase, run away, cover distances, and avoid skillshots better. That last part is the reason why I usually pick it up early against enemies like Lux or Xerath, who are both very skillshot reliant.

While the hex core upgrades do technically gain more value the later in the game it is, picking up one early can be really helpful. Keep in mind that even just the base stats, without the additional ability power per level or the ability augment taken into account are already near gold efficiency (i believe around 870 gold worth, if i remember correctly). The ability power isn't super impressive, but the additional mana can be helpful for allowing you to stay in lane longer. You will literally always want to upgrade Death Ray first, because that is the only augment that provides more damage. With that augment, you can pretty basically clear waves with one cast of Death Ray.

It's a good idea to pick up one of these if you are against a very long-range mage, like Xerath, Ziggs, or Lux. This will allow you to clear waves and counter-poke with Death Ray without worrying about your mana. I've gotten away with just building up the hex core early for mana and the Death Ray augment for waveclear against push-heavy enemies before, but having an Athene's Unholy Grail certainly helps, and this builds into that.

This is a good item to pick up early against AD mid opponents. It provides you with ability power, your main offensive stat, and some armor. The armor is super helpful, because it well help you mitigate their physical damage. It also builds into Zhonya's Hourglass, which is an important item to pick up early against these enemies.

Picking up an additional Doran's Ring early can be super awesome. The base stats are nice, with health and ability power being really good stats for you. The main reason that you pick it up, though is for the additional mana sustain. I have tried just picking up one of these and then upgrading the hex core against long-range mages and enjoyed it. Try it out some time and see if you like it. Also, if you get forced to back or get killed early in the game without much gold, buy one of these, or maybe some Boots of Speed.

EARLY RUSH ITEMS

After the rework, this has become an awesome item on Viktor. To get the most out of Siphon Power, you already have to autoattack an enemy. In addition, the low cooldown, speed boost and shield from Siphon Power make it easier to get the procs off than it is on certain other champions. However, I've tried replacing it with an Athene's Unholy Grail before if I don't feel confident autoattacking an enemy in the late game because of their team composition, or I'm against an enemy with lots of range and waveclear.

This item could be rushed against enemies that are way too long range for you to reach. I usually use this to replace Lich Bane in the final build because if I'm against an enemy with that much range I probably won't feel super confident in getting Lich Bane procs in the late game anyways. The stats it provides will help you be more aggressive with your poking and waveclearing in the early game, and the magic resistance will help you mitigate some of their poke early game. Don't even consider running this against an AD mid opponent though. That would be so much gold wasted on magic resistance.

Rush this item if you are against an AD mid opponent. The AP boost is substantial, but the most important part in that case is the armor. It will help you mitigate their physical damage so you can stay in lane against their harass or not die to their burst. The active is also super nice for giving you additional safety.

CORE ITEM SETS

This is the core item set if you are going for Lich Bane rather than Athene's Unholy Grail. From this item set you get pretty dang crazy burst, especially if you can get off the Siphon Power and Lich Bane infused autoattack. However, you rely solely upon your Perfect Hex Core, Lich Bane, and blue buff for mana sustain and cooldown reduction, which makes you pretty bad in long-term wave pushing or siege situations. Overall, I usually end up going with this item set though, but if your team is relying on you for siege power, consider going Athene's Unholy Grail.

I'd say that overall the Athene's Unholy Grail build is not as good as the Lich Bane build in my opinion. You lose a lot of damage from the Lich Bane procs, and damage is kind of important for you. However, going in for Lich Bane procs can be dangerous or even impossible against certain enemy mid laners or teams. In that situation, go instead for this build. You still actually get a lot of damage. The cooldown reduction is especially nice, because it means that you can get out more Death Rays and Siphon Powers in a shorter amount of time. The mana regeneration will also help you in siege situations by allowing you to stick around for longer.

ALTERNATIVE ITEMS

This is great if you are against an enemy with lots of tankiness through regeneration. A few examples would be Swain, Vladimir or Dr. Mundo. However, you also take Ignite in most matchups, so unless there's more than one enemy using regeneration, this isn't usually necessary.

A potential replacement for Void Staff if your enemies aren't building large amounts of magic resistance and it's already the late game. The health-melting passive actually works pretty nicely with both augmented Death Ray and Chaos Storm, because they both deal multiple instances of damage. Similar to Void Staff, it provides you with magic penetration, an important stat. However, if they build any kind of large amount magic resistance, then it's best to build Void Staff for the percent magic penetration.

Only replace your Sorcerer's Shoes with Mercury's Treads if the enemy team has lots of crowd control. The tenacity that these boots provide you with will help you get away if you do get hit by some crowd control.

I would consider replacing Zhonya's Hourglass in the build if you build a Lich Bane, because otherwise you don't end up with any kind of magic resistance, which might be a statistic that you need. The passive of this item and the active of Zhonya's Hourglass fill a similar role of giving you more safety.

ENCHANTMENTS

This is my favorite enchantment. It provides you with a speed boost when coming out of the fountain, allowing you to get back to lane and back into the game easier. This makes going back to buy much less of a hassle. You can also defend your base more easily.

Getting this enchantment can literally save your life in some matchups. A lot of super aggressive enemies can easily force Flash out of you, and this enchantment helps you with that by lowering it's cooldown. This will help with your fairly low mobility.

TRINKETS

This is my favorite of the two upgrades for the Warding Totem. This upgrade makes it so that instead of dropping stealth wards, your totem drops vision wards. These wards not only last until they are killed, they also reveal the area around them for invisible units. This can be especially helpful against enemies that have stealth. Just plop one of these down and it will reveal them. However, all of these advantages come at a price. The ward has a longer cooldown on this totem, and the ward is visible to all, meaning it can be destroyed without being swept. I prefer it though, because you can put it in the pixel brushes on either side of mid lane and they often persist for quite a while, and help you control one of the key objectives.

This is the other potential upgrade for your Warding Totem. Instead of changing the style of ward that you place like the other one does, this one simply decreases the cooldown of the totem enough that not only can you have 2 out on the field at once, you can replace them to change their location. I don't like this upgrade as much as the other two choices because it requires that you put significantly more work into warding because of the low cooldown, and you should be focusing on pushing lanes and killing people.

If you would rather be able to deny your enemies vision of the map than have wards to get vision for your team, this is the path to go. This trinket scans an area of the map, revealing and denying vision to any wards in the area as well as revealing any invisible enemy units. This upgrade to it makes it so that after you sweep, you gain a small aura of true vision so that you can continue to spot and destroy wards for a short while. A handy totem for denying your enemy vision. ALWAYS TAKE IT AGAINST Teemo!!!

HEX CORE

The timing of your upgrades to the hex core and which ability you augment when you do the upgrades is super important. My favorite way to go is usually to buy one upgrade fairly early, augmenting Death Ray for extra waveclear and poke damage. I then build into either Lich Bane, Athene's Unholy Grail, and maybe a Doran's Ring if you aren't going for the grail. At that point, I then usually go towards upgrading it all the way to the Perfect Hex Core. I usually like augmenting Siphon Power next, as the speed boost is great for many things, including chasing enemies, fleeing from enemies and evading skillshots in intense duels. However, if your team has some crazy area of effect wombo combo possibility, augmenting Gravity Field early and telling your team can have a great effect on teamfights. If i went for an Athene's Unholy Grail, then I'll usually slowly build it up, because it doesn't provide a whole lot of offensive stats on it's own in the early game, so then I'll usually rush into a Rabadon's Deathcap, also because you won't need the mana, which makes up a lot of the cost of the item.

ALL HAIL THE GLORIOUS EVOLUTION!!!

Gameplay

EARLY GAME

Viktor's early game, i'll admit, is not super in some ways. While Siphon Power does provide some good low-mana harass, as well as a shield to help you defend against the ensuing minion aggro or counter-harass, you have to be in autoattack range to get any kind of substantial damage from it. Death Ray provides good poke, but it's cooldown is somewhat long, and it's difficult to hit at long range, making it unreliable. Gravity Field isn't super good for any form of aggression without additional CC from your jungler to help ensure that the stun will go off. You can use it to help peel fairly well by putting it between you and your enemy. They won't be able to cross all the way through it without getting stunned. Try to focus on farming because of these inherent disadvantages in lane, harassing only when you feel confident. When you hit 6, your kill potential spikes. Tell your jungler when you're getting near, and see if you can get a kill off of it.

MID GAME

Mid game is when Viktor starts to take off. So long as you haven't been held back too far by your sub-par early laning phase, this is when you start to gain advantages over most lane opponents. One of the nice parts about Viktor is that you scale well in terms of lots of different things, getting lots of area of effect damage, poke and burst damage as well as a solid amount of utility. One of your main areas of advantage though is your crazy burst damage. I've been in situations as viktor where around the 15 to twenty minute mark a well-placed full damage combo will bring the entire team to low health, with whoever I hit with the Siphon Power and Lich Bane infused auttoattack outright dying instantly. You are a beast in teamfights, so try to push the game in such a direction that you get lots of opportunities to take advantage of this, unless your team is terrible in them. If you're underfarmed, try to stick to your lane and farm up more, you need items and levels to become effective.

LATE GAME

Viktor is absolutely one of the best mid laners in the late game. Your ability to burst large groups of enemies persists from the mid game, if not improves, and you continue to be able to consistently compete in other ways, including waveclear, poke, crowd control and utility. The general battle plan goes like this: follow your team's calls, helping them contest objectives and pushing whichever lane you have the most people in ( Viktor should never try to split push. You can push a lane away from a tower, but never get too far away from turrets without your team). If the enemy team tries to contest you in any kind of area away from one of their turrets, smack them with the whole AOE burst combo. During siege situations, the most that you can do is push the wave using Death Ray, and poke any available enemies when it is off cooldown and there isn't a wave around. You aren't as long range as a lot of other mages, so in your attempts at poking and such in siege situations, for the love of god don't get engaged on. You are so squishy. Try to use Lich Bane procs on the tower if the enemy team is zoned far enough away from it, as it actually deals substantial damage. Try to hit squishy enemies in teamfights, especially with Chaos Storm if possible. It does crazy damage.ALL HAIL THE GLORIOUS EVOLUTION!!!

Tips & Tricks

The initial range of Siphon Power is longer than your autoattack range. If your enemy is smart, they will usually run away from you when they get hit by the initial spell so that they can't get hit by your autoattack. You can use this threat to zone enemies away from farm. Once you get the Siphon Power augment, it becomes much easier to use this ability offensively.

If your enemy is staying far away from you but you want to burst them, using an augmented Siphon Power on a minion can give you the speed boost that you might need to catch them. This can also be used for the simple purposes of harassment. Siphon Power a minion, run up to them and autoattack them, run away.

Using Chaos Storm to burst a single enemy is entirely acceptable, especially in the early game. However, if it is a high-pressure time in the game, like if you are contesting an objective, then try to save it for either multi-target usage or, if one member of the enemy team is super fed and thusly is a key target, use it to burst them.

Most of your bad matchups are against super long-range mages, because they can deal lots of poke damage to you and stay out of the range of your burst. There are a few good ways to mitigate this though. First of all, play passively and farm in the early game, so that you can still provide a strong threat in the late game. While they may be able to stay out of your range, their team probably won't. Second of all, a lot these enemies are commonly weak to ganks due to their low mobility. If your jungler has adequate crowd control, then you can actually give very good follow-up to ganks using your Gravity Field and burst. They tend to push the wave, so there's often good gank opportunities. make sure to communicate this to your jungler. Another, more sneaky way to do this is to pretend you're roaming, and if they follow you, burst them while they are entering one of the bushes that they will go through. Proceed to push your lane with no harassment.

Gravity Field is a difficult ability to use correctly. It's best use in most cases is as a way to peel for yourself and your fellow long-range carries. Place it between you and your enemy. Unless they use Flash or some other kind of long-range gap-closer, they will get stunned in the middle of the field or have to avoid it. It's not much good on it's own unless you use it this way. However, it is an excellent follow-up on an ally's crowd control, which will help assure that the stun goes off. If you get multiple people trapped in it, then consider throwing down the whole Death Ray- Chaos Storm burst combo.

Keep Chaos Storm on the most important target using the R button. The damage over time is substantial. Since it's speed decreases the farther away from you it is, you might need to follow them yourself as well. If the enemy that you want to follow is getting away in a teamfight and you can't pursue them without putting yourself in danger, bring back the storm and put it on someone near you. It'll book it back at full speed, because it moves at full speed towards you but slows down as it gets farther away from you, much like an excited puppy.

Needs more metal and lasers. But it's still pretty glorious.

ALL HAIL THE GLORIOUS EVOLUTION!!!

Summary

So there you have it. That's all of the Viktor knowledge that I have compiled in my experiments with him thus far. I will continue to update this guide as I play more of him, so keep an eye on this guide if you want more! If you enjoy this guide, then don't forget to upvote and leave me a comment. If there was anything that you didn't like or disagree with in the guide, then leave me a comment. I'll be sure to respond with my opinion, and if I agree with your suggestions and make a change, then I'll be sure to give you credit in the changelog! Thank you very much for reading my guide and have an excellent day!ALL HAIL THE GLORIOUS EVOLUTION!!!

Changelog

This is also covered in the first comment for the guide.

10/4/2014 - Guide published

10/5/2014 - Added a summoner spells section, added enchantments and trinkets to the items chapter, and fixed some sections of text that I didn't like after going back over them.